Work Package no. 8 – Impact of political parties

WP 8 studies the potential impact of changing party discourse and journalistic culture on citizens’ motivation to control ADID in a weak-norms (Romania) and a strong-norms (Norway) context. The main instrument was the introduction of a set of questions in a representative, national survey to repeat and expand the list of experiments that were embedded in the Winter 2015/2016 Less Hate More Speech survey.

Objectives:

• Explore the potential impact of changing party discourses on citizens’ motivation to control ADID in a weak-norms (Romania) and a strong-norms context (Norway)
• Explore the potential impact of journalistic culture on readers/viewers’ motivation to control ADID in a weak-norms (Romania) and a strong-norms context (Norway)

Findings:

Intolerance towards the Roma in Romania and Norway:

• A report on comparative findings regarding anti-Roma sentiment in Romania and Norway showed that intolerant attitudes towards the Roma are fairly widespread, this group being the most discriminated ethnic minority in both countries. In terms of stereotypes, Roma people face pervasive negative preconceptions in both Romania and Norway. Common notions include the idea that they are not hard workers or that they are unwilling to work when offered the chance. It is reasonable to assume that this hinders the ability of Roma people to obtain and maintain steady jobs.
• Respondents in both Romania and Norway expressed broad discomfort with having Roma people as neighbours. Additionally, findings suggest that social distance is one-dimensional in both countries, and that people who are hostile towards one group, are likely to express hostility towards all out-groups. Norway has a significantly smaller proportion of Roma inhabitants (approximately 0.22% compared to 8.32% in Romania), which suggests that hostility is unlikely to come from direct negative experience with the group. What is different between the two countries is that respondents’ level of education in Romania is not a strong predictor of social tolerance, while in Norway, more highly educated people are less likely to express a negative opinion about having a member of the out-group as a neighbour.
• When it comes to denial of rights, findings among the Romanian population support the idea that holding negative stereotypes about the Roma and having a higher score on the social distance index leads to a greater likelihood of denying them rights. A similar pattern can be observed in the Norwegian data, as findings show that negative stereotypes and greater social distance are strong predictors for supporting a ban on begging.